Food for Maine's Future

SEED PLANTING CEREMONY ON BLUE HILL MOUNTAIN, COMMUNITY BRUNCH & SEED SWAP TO FOLLOW

There will be a Seed Ceremony and Blessing for the Spring Planting on top of Blue Hill Mountain Sunday, April 28 at 8:30am. Participants are asked to arrive at the base of the mountain at 7:45am for a welcome and 8:00am departure. The non-demominational ceremony will be led by Anu Dudley, ordained minister affiliated with The Temple of the Feminine Divine in Bangor and host of Earth Tides on WERU. Each participant is asked to bring a few seeds, a small planting pot, and enough soil for planting. There will also be a 7:30am departure for participants who need more time to hike the mountain.

Winnowing seeds at 2012 Seed Camp

Following the ceremony there will be a Community Brunch and Seed & Seedling Swap at the Halcyon Grange in Blue Hill. This event is sponsored by Food for Maine’s Future in partnership with the Seed Keepers Collective and Why Hunger. Hear about the Seed Keepers Collective’s project weaving seed saving, food justice, history, and culture. Also learn about Food for Maine’s Future’s upcoming Seed Camp and effort to create Saving Seeds Farm, a commercial seed farm and training site. The brunch

Seed Camp Class of 2012

will include a variety of egg dishes, baked goods, and oatmeal bar. Suggested donation is $10-$20. All proceeds benefit the Seed Camp

Scholarship Fund to ensure equal access to the program. For more information or to RSVP contact Food for Maine’s Future at 244-0908 or email bobstpeter@gmail.com.

First stop was in Milwaukee, on a picket line with Palermo’s Pizza workers who are on strike for the right to organize.

Maine farmer Bob St. Peter, of Food for Maine’s Future (second from left) and his family joined striking Palermo’s workers.

At the MOSES Organic Farming conference in LaCrosse, an annual event that draws over 3,000 farmers, advocates, educators, students, we heard from farmers about challenges with dairy coops, market consolidation, support for beginning farmers and much more, and talked to hundreds of people about the common struggles facing farmers and farmworkers. We also collected signatures in support of the Family Farm Defenders‘ Land O’Fakes campaign (sign the petition here!) and solidarity statements to bring to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers‘ March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food taking place next month, March 3-17.

And then we headed to the small town of Kendall for a work day on Joel Greeno’s dairy farm. Joel has a herd of 48 cows on 160 acres of rolling fields, and farms with his father, who is in his 70s. Joel has been farming his whole life and he loves it — but he wonders every day if he’ll be able to keep going, because, like so many dairy farmers, the price he gets paid for his milk is barely above his cost of production. Joel is an outspoken advocate for reform in the dairy industry, saying, “Farmers want to be able to provide food for their communities – but we have to be able to make a living.” Stay tuned for more of Joel’s story in the coming weeks.

Joel and Bob at the end of the workday.

Food for Maine’s Future board member and Ordinance-Protected Farmer Bob St.Peter (Sedgwick) recently wrote about the Local Food & Community Self-Governance Ordinance for Why Hunger’s Food Security Learning Center. Read this bird’s eye view of this countries growing food sovereignty movement.

The Right to Eat Local: Assessing the Relevance & Impact of the Local Food & Community Self-Governance Ordinance

Follow Why Hunger’s Connect Blog

Read Milbridge, Maine-based Mano en Mano’s letter of support for the Farm Labor Reality Tour and the Coalition of Immokalee Worker’s Campaign for Fair Food. Learn more about Mano en Mano by visiting their website www.manomaine.org.

Send your letter of support to bobstpeter@gmail.com and we’ll post here!

Thank you to our friends and allies at Food AND Medicine for hosting a press conference at the Workers Rights Center of Eastern Maine this morning to kick off the Farm Labor Reality Tour. The send-off came after a productive morning meet of FAM members who are working to make small farms viable through innovative programs like their matching EBT program at the Ohio St. Farmers Market in Bangor.

During the event, Food for Maine’s Future board member and Saving Seeds Farm manager Bob St.Peter presented FAM director Jack McKay with tomato, pepper, and onion seeds produced by FMF last season. May the seeds of our collaboration continue to grow!